Sound Off: National Guard on the Border a Bad Plan

This Sound Off was submitted by Terry Riley:
When politicians want to look like they are dealing with a problem they throw some money at it. This knee-jerk response is almost always wrong and in the President's plan to send reservists to our border with Mexico it seems more wrong than usual. The really sad thing is that the "spin machine" has generated a lot of public support for this effort. I would like to ask anybody who supports this plan a couple of very serious questions.

The first question that I have is about the part of the plan that will have 6,000 reservists serving two weeks at-a-time along the border. How can we deploy 6,000 reservists along a 10,000 mile border every two weeks and have ANY success? Do you have any idea how expensive the transportation costs alone will be?  Will there be overlap periods while outgoing reservists are packing up and incoming reservists are unpacking? Will there be training? How much training can be done in two weeks?

My second question is about the description of the work the reservists will be doing. The president said that the reservists will be training the Border Patrol! Just who will be training who? Can there be any work being done if there is all of this training of the trainers who will be training the people who were already doing the job? I believe that our reservists are trained in the jobs that they are currently assigned to. I don't believe that we have more than a couple of reservists who are trained at Border Patrol, and their "regular job" is probably BORDER PATROL!

I fear that the immigration issue becoming such a hot topic has a lot to do with things that the administration is doing behind our backs again. I wonder if it is being trumpeted so that we will lose interest in wiretapping, or the investigations of so many Bush Administration "hit men," or the possibility that President Bush is launching a nuclear attack on Iran, or something else entirely. 

Please stand up for civility, thoughtfulness and compassion as we consider the problem of illegal immigration. The problem has been with us for a very long time and we need to solve it. We need to find a way to stop the illegal flow without killing people or destroying the lives of people who have become so desperate. Study the problem so you can solve the problem. Quick fixes are very expensive and NEVER fix anything.

This Sound Off was submitted by Terry Riley. Sound Off is a regular feature of this blog, and allows readers to post their opinions on any and all issues. If you'd like to take part, email your Sound Off post to me by clicking on the Email Me link on the top left side of the main page.